


the electric things have their lives, too

by letshargroovetonight



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: A Robot with Feelings, Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, Angst, M/M, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-06
Updated: 2018-04-05
Packaged: 2019-04-19 00:22:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14225052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/letshargroovetonight/pseuds/letshargroovetonight
Summary: There’s nothing wrong with him, he just wants tobe.Billy is a robot with feelings and Steve shows him that's okay.





	the electric things have their lives, too

**Author's Note:**

> originally posted to [tumblr](https://letshargroovetonight.tumblr.com/post/172540832189/the-electric-things-have-their-lives-too?is_related_post=1). title taken from do androids dream of electric sheep? by philip k. dick

When Billy comes online for the first time, he’s met by a stout man with hard eyes.

“Neil,” Billy says. There’s no need for introductions, the name had already been programmed into the depths of his code. Billy knows that he is meant to obey this human, to do whatever he says. It’s his sole directive.

At first Neil has Billy delivering things to his associates, running errands all around the city. Billy is quick and efficient which he knows Neil appreciates. But pretty soon Neil ups Billy’s responsibilities, has Billy in charge of “dealing with people” as Neil likes to call it - with those who’ve crossed Neil in the past, those who owe him for something and didn’t pay up.

Billy’s also good at that. Gets in, threatens and beats the ever-living fuck out of whoever Neil tells him to, and then gets out.

This is how Billy’s missions always go, without any hiccups or bumps. Until it doesn’t. Neil sics Billy after some guy who had cost Neil a shipment of product by tipping the cops off. The shipment was meant to go out to one of the outer cities. They’ll usually pay top dollar for certain things, so Neil is pissed not only because he wasn’t getting the money now, but he also lost the product - the cops had confiscated everything.

Billy is given an address and an apartment number. He breaks into the apartment at night, catches the man while he’s making dinner.

“Please stop, I’m sorry. Stop, _please_ ,” the guy wheezes out while Billy lays into him, but Billy doesn’t listen because he’s just supposed to do what he’s told.

“I’ll keep my mouth shut from now on,” he pleads when Billy hauls him up from the floor, shoves him against the wall. But his pleas stop when the front door suddenly whooshes open.

Billy stops too, notices the man is holding his breath.

"Dad?” a girl’s voice calls out.

“Oh god,” the man whimpers. Billy pushes his arm against the guy’s throat to silence him.

“Dad?” the daughter tries again. Billy hears her footsteps approaching the living room.

“Dad, are you -”

Her question finishes with a shocked gasp when she spots Billy holding her dad up against the wall. Billy sees the exact moment her confusion morphs into fear.

Billy let’s the man’s body hit the floor with a heavy thud. As Billy steps back, the girl runs right past him to her dad, gets down on the floor to take her dad’s bloodied face into her hands. She’s sobbing out now, her body shaking with the force of them.

Neil didn’t say anything about the man’s family, so Billy let’s the girl be. Figures they’ve both got Neil’s message loud and clear. But he can’t seem to shake the sounds of despair the man’s daughter continues to make as Villy leaves, even when he’s up in the airship making his way back to Neil’s headquarters.

They had almost made him feel _guilty_.

____________________________________________

Billy does a quick debrief with Neil when he returns as he always does, except he ends the session a bit differently this time.

“I didn’t like that, at the end. with the girl,” Billy finishes.

“Excuse me? You didn’t _like_ that?” Neil replies, stares at Billy long and hard when the bot doesn’t offer anything else up. Neil approaches Billy, crowds him until his back’s against the wall, sticks a finger in his face.

“You’re not supposed to _like_ or _dislike_ anything,” Neil sneers.

“And just so we’re clear,” Neil punctuates, “You’re only around because I don’t need someone questioning me or going against me when I ask them to do something.”

“Understand?” Neil shouts in Billy’s face when he doesn’t respond, jamming his finger into Billy’s forehead hard enough that it bounces off the wall.

Billy doesn’t react to Neil’s violecne, he’s not meant to. Just like supposed he’s supposed to do whatever he’s told, he’s also supposed to take whatever Neil dishes out to him.

“Yes, sir,” Billy answers.

“Now, I’m powering you down so I can have a look at your code. You shouldn’t be saying shit like that,” Neil says through clenched teeth. He reaches behind Billy, to the spot at the top of his spine, where his power port is.

Billy feels a slight pressure and then he’s just -

blank.

____________________________________________

When Billy is booted up a second time, nothing seems different. Neil asks him a few questions about respect and responsibility and Billy rattles off the answers he knows Neil wants to hear.

And so Billy continues his existence as Neil’s attack dog.

____________________________________________

One night, Billy is assigned to go after some man that was trying to drum up a faction against Neil. Billy gets in, kicks the shit out of the guy, threatens to cut out his tongue if he ever spoke ill of Neil again (just like Neil had instructed him to do) and breaks a few of his fingers for good measure.

Billy slips out into the alleyway next to the guy’s building. He’d parked the airship a few streets over and doesn’t want to walk along the main drag to get back to it. He stops though when he hears a noise in the dark, immediately on alert. Had someone been waiting out here for him to leave?

He hears another noise, watches as something emerges from the shadows. Billy’s readies himself for a fight, but when he sees what it is, Billy immediately relaxes. It totters towards him, let’s out a little mew and then rubs against Billy’s leg.

He knows objectively that this is a kitten, can pull up multiple files about felines from his advanced database system, but he’s never actually seen one before. Real animals are pretty rare these days.

Billy bends down, runs a hand over the soft fur of it’s back, decides then and there that he’s taking this small animal back with him.

The kitten behaves itself the entire ride back after Billy plops it in the passenger’s side of the airship. When he returns back to Neil’s he smuggles the kitten into his pod. It’s not much but it’s Billy’s own space and he has learned to appreciate the little things, just like the one he’s got tucked inside his jacket.

In his pod, Billy leans up along the wall, sitting on the small cot Neil allows him to use for when he’s in his sleep modes. The kitten’s curled up in between Billy’s legs, let’s out a continuous rumbling noise that Billy can feel against his thighs.

“Purring,” Billy says quietly to himself, scratches behind the kitten’s ears.

Neil bursts into the pod later, just after Billy returns from the kitchen with a can of synthetic tuna (a quick informational scan told him cats like fish and this was the closest the kitten would get to that).

Billy has no time to hide the kitten away, hops off the cot to move in front of it, trying to block Neil’s view.

“What is that?” Neil barks, pushes billy aside to stare down at the tiny animal.

“A cat? Where the fuck did you find that?” Neil demands. he picks the kitten up by the scruff to give it a good look.

“When i was coming back. In an alley,” Billy says, watches as Neil dangles the cat in front of his face.

“My daughter will love this,” Neil proclaims, then tucks the kitten into the crook of his elbow.

Neil mentions his daughter from time to time. _Maxine_. but Billy’s never seen her. Neil has never brought her here, to his headquarters.

And why should she get the kitten when Billy is the one who found it?

As Neil turns away, Billy feels the urge to grab after the kitten. Instead, he grabs at Neil’s shoulder to try and stop him from leaving with it. The second he lays a hand on Neil, he knows he’s made a mistake, knows that he shouldn’t have done that.

Neil whirls around, smacks Billy’s hand away. “

"You don’t _ever_ touch me,” Neil snarls, his eyes murderous.

Somehow the kitten has remained tucked away during the exchange. It gives Billy a doleful look before Neil spins on his heel, heads to the door.

“I’ll deal with you later,” Neil growls out without turning around. The door shuts behind him and Billy hears the beep of Neil issuing the lock command. Neil never locked Billy in his pod before, he normally allows him free range of the headquarters so Billy knows Neil is very unhappy with him.

True to his word as he normally is, Neil is back later on, jostling Billy out of sleep mode just to take him offline.

“I swear there’s gotta be something wrong with your code,” is the last thing Billy hears.

____________________________________________

He’s not sure how long Neil has him shut down for this time. When he blinks his eyes open after what could have been a few hours or several days, the only thing he notices is that his systems are running a bit faster. Neil must’ve done an update while digging around in Billy’s code.

Neil barely looks at him the next night as he gives Billy a new assignment sitting at the desk of his office. Billy's target is a man who’s been encroaching on one of Neil’s business ventures. Neil rattles on and Billy schools his face to make it seem as though he’s intently listening to Neil’s rant. He’s actually wondering how the kitten is doing. Is Maxine taking care of it?

Billy tunes back in when he can tell Neil is wrapping up.

“And that’s why he’s been such a bitch to find. He doesn’t even leave his damn place anymore, has got those kids of his out and about doing stuff for him,” Neil says, shuts off a halo-doc he had been looking at, probably with all the intel gathered on the guy.

“So if they get in the way, just deal with them too,” Neil orders.

“No,” Billy responds before he’s able to process what’s coming out of his mouth.

“What did you just say to me?” Neil seethes, his nostrils flaring. Now Neil’s looking straight at him.

“I won’t deal with them too - only him,” Billy explains simply. He remembers the daughter, an innocent bystander. Remembers how her crying had made him feel. He didn’t like it, he doesn’t want to feel like that again.

“This is fucking ridiculous. I’ve got a fucking _bot_ back talking to me” Neil fumes, shoving up from his chair.

He stalks up to Billy, backhands him so hard that Billy falls to the floor, places a few solid kicks to his stomach. It doesn’t really hurt Billy but he remains there on the carpet, doesn’t want Neil to think he’s acting out of line by defending himself. Especially so soon after the incident with the kitten.

Neil grabs at his Billy’s hair, forces his head up so that Billy’s met with a thin-lipped smile. Neil is quiet for a few moments as he considers Billy.

“This isn’t really worth it anymore, seems like there’s no fixing you,” Neil says, tightens his grip in Billy’s hair.

"I’m thinking that I’ll just power you down permanently. Throw you in some dump outside the city where broken things like you belong,” Neil hisses.

And Billy feels _fear_ for the first time then, knows Neil isn’t playing around when he snakes his other hand around the back of Billy’s head. Billy doesn’t want to be shut down permanently - there’s nothing wrong with him, he just wants to _be_.

Billy opens his mouth to tell Neil that but —

____________________________________________

The fourth time Billy comes back online, the first thing he sees is a boy with kind, brown eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> i'm [@letshargroovetonight](https://letshargroovetonight.tumblr.com/) on tumblr too - come talk to me about robot au/harringrove!


End file.
